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John D. Barrow: The Book of Universes

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Gresham College

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Partner:: Gresham College
Location:: Barnard's Inn Hall
London
Event Date:: 03.01.11
Speaker:: John D. Barrow
Tags:: Einstein; universe; Godel; cosmology

Summary: A special event to mark the publication of Professor Barrow's new book, The Book of Universes.

This is a book about universes, a story that revolves around a single unusual and unappreciated fact: that Einstein's famous theory of relativity describe universes – entire universes. Not many solutions of Einstein's tantalizing universe equations have ever been found, but those that have are all very remarkable. Some of them describe universes that expand in size, while others contract; some rotate like a top and others are chaotic. Some are perfectly smooth, while others are lumpy, or shaken in different directions by tides of energy; some oscillate forever, some become lifeless and cold, while others head towards a runaway future of ever-increasing expansion. Some permit time travel into the past, and others allow infinitely many things to happen in a finite amount of time. Only a few allow life to evolve within them; the rest remain unknowable to conscious minds. Some end with a bang, some with a whimper. Some don't end at all.

Our story will encounter universes where the laws of physics can change from time to time and from one region to another, universes that have extra hidden dimensions of space and time, universes that are eternal, universes that live inside black holes, universes that end without warning, colliding universes, inflationary universes, and universes that come into being from something else – or from nothing at all. Gradually, we will find ourselves introducing the latest and the best descriptions of the Universe we see around us today, together with the concept of the "Multiverse" – the universe of all possible universes – that modern theories of physics lead us to contemplate. These are the most fantastic and far-reaching speculations in the whole of science. Other cosmology and astronomy books focus on particular topics – dark matter, dark energy, the beginning of the universe, inflation, life-supporting coincidences, or the end of the universe – but this book introduces the reader to whole universes in a coherent and unified way.

For transcript and download versions of this lecture, please visit the event's page on the Gresham College website: The Book of the Universes

Chapters

01.: John D. Barrow: The Book of Universes

01 hr 05 min 13 sec

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socratus

Posted: 10.20.11, 11:08 PM

A black hole can be Vacuum. 1. A black hole has a temperature within a few millionths of a degree above absolute zero: T=0K. / Oxford. Dictionary./ 2. A stellar black hole of one solar mass has a Hawking temperature of about 100 nanokelvins. This is far less than the 2.7 K temperature of the cosmic microwave background. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole 3. Previous Picture of the Day articles about black holes suggested that the terminology used to describe “gravitational point sources” is highly speculative: space/time, singularities, and infinite density are abstract concepts, precluding a realistic investigation into the nature of the Universe. / Oct 12, 2011. Black hole theory contradicts itself. By Stephen Smith / =. My heretical idea: The black hole with thermodynamic temperature T= 2,7K - –--> T= 0K. is a Homogeneous Energy Vacuum Space between Galaxies. Only Vacuum can have infinite spacetime, infinite energy,infinite density. =. Israel Sadovnik Socratus ===.

socratus

Posted: 08.17.11, 04:58 AM

If Infinity is some kind of reality: what to do? 1. Classic physics has infinity as conception of Newtonian space and Newtonian time. 2. Quantum theory meets with infinity. 3. Cosmology occupied with infinity. . . . etc . . . . ===. About every part of physics occupied with concept ‘ infinity’. But . . . Infinity is a irrational concept. We cannot measure it. (!) What to do? # I can say: God doesn’t exist because we cannot see him/ her /it, touch him/ her/ it, hear or smell him /her/ it. Millions will agree with this argument. But in Physics I cannot say the Infinity doesn’t exist because we cannot measure it.. Is it true, we cannot measure it, but it appears again and again in many physical and mathematical problems. In spit of my or your or physicists wish it appears again and again because . . . because it is some kind of reality. (!) What to do? # The answer can be only one: If we cannot escape the concept ‘ Infinity’, if ‘ Infinity’ is some kind of reality, then we must agree with it existence and find the ‘ hidden’ parameters of ‘ Infinity’ in Physics. # It seems, that the best role on this place can take only two physical parameters: T= 0K and E= 0 = infinite ( the lowest state of cosmic background energy). # Maybe somebody will suggest another concrete physical parameter or parameters? ========. Best wishes. Israel Sadovnik. Socratus. ========================..

socratus

Posted: 08.01.11, 12:55 AM

Infinity is the cause of the crisis in Physics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity Question: Can Infinity have concrete physical parameters?